A Game of Hate: Thoughts on The Last of Us Part II

In 2013, I should've been a senior in university. I wasn't, largely due to a disability restructuring my tenure at school, but also due to an injury sustained sophomore year.

It was also the year Naughty Dog cemented their role as a studio focused on "cinematic" experiences. Games that are laser focused - on character, on story, on what you as a player do or don't do. Trying to break the game breaks the mood, the sense of immersion. Whatever that means.

But the game that did that, for all its limitations was quite damn good. The Last of Us traded on the popularity of IP like The Walking Dead but did its own thing. A journey to the west (literally), a story of finding hope again, but also of the things we're capable of doing. The things that for our selfish reasons can ruin the lives of many others.

It has a really solid gameplay loop paired with character moments that while maybe tropey, while maybe nothing outstanding in film or television, did feel like a step forward for "traditional" story telling in games, a medium that still feels, at least 11 years later in the AAA space, hyper-focused on chasing "cinematic" as a mode.

The game was, in some ways, small in scope. Yes, it's a story to (maybe) save the world and secure humanity's future. But it's really about the relationship of two people - a surrogate father and daughter. It ends on a note just ambiguous enough to leave you compelled as to what the fallout of the story is.

So naturally, a sequel is something folks want. Whether they should or not is another story.

In April 2020, I lose my job. A global pandemic is happening. Did I mention that the world of The Last of Us is a world post-fungal outbreak? Oh yeah, that's a thing.

A couple months later, Sony and Naughty dog release The Last of Us: Part II.

Leaks happen ahead of its release and the internet is set ablaze. Transphobes are angry because there's, some where in there, a trans character. Oh no! Scary! (Please understand I'm being sarcastic - there's nothing remotely scary about a person being trans!!!). They see a woman who has biceps that most gym frequenters can only dream of. She must be the trans one! And if she's not she's clearly gross!! (Again, that's sarcasm).

I'm not really interested in any of this, at least not as a point of criticism (well ... maybe not entirely true, but we'll get to that). It's kinda cool to see a female character who doesn't really look anything we see in most pop culture, honestly.

A game about a post-pandemic world, during the 2020 lockdown, that is grim and serious held no interest for me at that point. Resident Evil 3's remake at least was campy, funny, action-packed ... silly, even. But I had no interest in playing a game about "cycles of violence" and that focused on making the player feels repulsed by the things they do while also being set in a world impacted by something akin to what we as a society were actually experiencing.

And there's all the other garbage. The working conditions at Naughty Dog, etc. None of that's great.

But what really put me off was this piece.

We cannot control where Neil Druckmann was born. We cannot control the environment in which he was raised. He is not an inherently bad person because he is from Israel. But this moment of anger, this moment of hatred - this moment where he thought about what could happen if he, and I quote: "... push a button and kill these all these people that committed this horrible act..."

Yes, he claims he later regretted thinking that. And I relate! I have intrusive thoughts, it's unpleasant. But this thought, and that alleged regret over it later, is what propels The Last of Us Part II. And I don't know that he's thought about the implications of any of it with any real thought.

I'm still working through my own feelings on the specifics but ... it's a little pointed. Read the Vice piece for a more thoughtful distillation of how the setting of the game and the plot beats echo the Israeli/Palestinian conflict but fuck man it's pretty apparent. The Wolves are clear Israeli analogues, and while someone like Isaac isn't painted as great... they the game doesn't paint the Scars, besides Lev and Yara, as people. And it clearly paints them as the Palestinians of this conflict.

Druckmann, whether he's cognizant of it or not, has been informed by a certain upbringing and a certain buy-in to stereotypes and myths about a group of people and he has put that in the game (insert the Jonathan Blow Indie Game: The Movie scene here).

This is a large fucking chunk of the game, my friends. And it doesn't even get into the Abby/Ellie dynamics.

Ellie's entire storyline is a damned mess. The way the game handles her relationship with Joel in the years between the first game and it's final moment, where he lies to her about the cure and his actions and the events leading up to his death at the hands of Abby are doled out piecemeal throughout the game. It's awkward, it muddies Ellie's motivations, and it never quite feels like it payoffs. Not even the final scene makes it feel like Ellie is justified in any of her actions.

Shes comes off as a goddamn psychopath. I will give the game kudos for at least reckoning with the consequences her vengeance has on those around her, but it just doesn't feel justified. You play a lot of the game seemingly seeing Ellie brutally murdering Abby's friends, random Wolves, random Scars. Watching her see friends die, and all justifying it because "they killed Joel".

And yet for so much of it you only see past Ellie not trusting Joel. A gap growing between them. Some might argue this grey area makes her quest more compelling - the "why" of her seeking revenge being a compelling question. Maybe one that's more human. Relationships are messy after all.

But the execution of it's lacking, and it just proceeds to make you feel disgusting about the violent murder you so often do. And I don't think the discomfort with it actually made me feel anything other than frustration. Not frustration that I was doing it, but frustration that people thought this very dissonance was compelling. It's not!

Abby, for her part, is actually a more compelling character. We see how Joel's actions destroy her. We see her have real relationships with those around her. While she wants revenge on Joel, it feels more organic, more earned. Watching her friends die, watching her form a bond with Lev, she is a likable character.

The scene where she confronts Ellie does actually feel earned. But then again... her story also fronts the entire Wolves/Scar conflict and is so gross in its own right as a result.

The confrontation between Elli and Abby ends with a stark shot. They're blood soaked against a crimson red light. It's a compelling image. They both stand down, realizing it just isn't fucking worth it. It's a great ending.

Except there's another 8 hours of game after that. Somehow, despite now living happily with Dina on a farm, Ellie still wants revenge. And so we go through more excruciating gameplay, with the game ending on a boring, intentionally pathetic looking fist fight that just replays the beats of earlier in a visually uninteresting way. We learned nothing new in those 8 hours. And it ends the same. Both parties walking away on separate paths.

Then we get a flashback to Ellie and Joel. They seem to make amends, in their own way. And it's such a fucking unearned, lame ending.

This is a game about cycles of hate, cycles of violence. Its impact could be far greater by ending on a moment reiterating that. Instead, Naughty Dog, under Druckmann's direction, ends trying to be saccharine. To flash back to the "good". It's a fucking slap in the face.

The Last of Us Part II is a game of hatred. But it pretends it isn't. It's a technical marvel. It's a fun, overly long game. But it's a disgusting game. One that squanders what made the first so special.